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Dredge Oregon has launched the 2025 season, keeping Columbia River deep and wide enough for ships.
From now until around December, the crew of the Dredge Oregon will perform work that’s crucial to thousands of local businesses and jobs in the region—but is out of sight and mind for most Oregonians.
To ensure the river is deep and wide enough for ships, barges, vessels and tugs to safely travel between Portland and the Pacific Ocean, the dredge removes well over a million cubic yards of material annually—mostly sand and gravel—built up along the bottom of the navigation channel to restore it to a depth of 43 feet and width of 600 feet.
The Dredge Oregon and its crew are critical to the economic success of the entire network of 36 ports in the Columbia-Snake River system.
When it’s out on the river, the Dredge Oregon operates 24 hours a day, six days per week, with a hardworking crew of about 45 members.
By the end of the 2024 season, it had scooped up and relocated 1.8 million cubic yards of sandy sediment. In 2025, the Dredge Oregon expects to work at 8 to 10 sites between Portland and Astoria, including a stint in the river off Vancouver, Wash.